About Candace Nelson

Candace Nelson is a pastry chef and judge on the television series Cupcake Wars. She is credited with starting a nationwide cupcake craze with the opening of her store, Sprinkles Cupcakes, in 2005.

Nelson grew up in Indonesia. Baking runs in her family, as her French-American grandmother was known for the desserts she created at her San Francisco restaurant in the 1930s. Nelson is a graduate of Wesleyan University (class of 1996) and Tante Marie's Professional Pastry Program in San Francisco.

Before entering the bakery business, Nelson and her husband, Charles, a native of Oklahoma, worked as investment bankers. After the dot-com bust, Candace decided to focus on pastry making and opened a custom cake business from her home in San Francisco. Later she and Charles moved the business to a former old-fashioned bakery in Los Angeles and began making only cupcakes.

On April 13, 2005, the couple opened Sprinkles Cupcakes, the world's first cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills, California. They sold 2,000 cupcakes the first week. Candace is described as taking a "sophisticated" take on the classic cupcake, using finest quality ingredients like sweet cream butter, pure Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla and Callebaut chocolate. She also creates offbeat offerings like vegan and gluten-free cupcakes and even dog-food cupcakes.

Sprinkles now has 10 locations throughout the United States, with plans to open in 15 more cities including London and Tokyo. In 2007 Candace also developed a line of cupcake mixes which are sold exclusively through her store and Williams-Sonoma stores in the United States and Canada.

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